City’s interest in Portuguese defender Pepe may be over according to reports this morning.

It’s thought that City’s failure to sign the 30-year old could offer a fresh opportunity for Joleon Lescott to stake a claim for regular inclusion.

“City were already resigned to failing to sign him,” writes Herbert, “the situation could offer a reprieve to Joleon Lescott, whose desire to stay at the club is tempered by a need for Premier League starts ahead of the 2014 World Cup.

“City are progressing moves to sign the Sevilla striker Alvaro Negredo, though frontman Pablo Osvaldo is not heading to City, despite suggestions that they are closing in on the Roma player.”

One man who could be creeping ever-closer to a move to the Etihad Stadium is Stevan Jovetic, who looks set to leave Fiorentina after the Serie A club clinched a deal for Bayern Munich striker Mario Gomez.

City are said to be in competition with Arsenal for the Montenegrin frontman but the Blues are thought to be leading the race to activate his £27m buy-out clause.

“It is City who are moving into pole position having sold Carlos Tevez to Juventus. plus they can cope with his basic wage demands of £120,000 a week,” Shaun Custis of The Sun reports.

“Jovetic has made it clear he wants to leave Florence.”

...Shaun Custis - The Sun...

A source close to the player said: “Of the top players in Europe, Stevan is the best value striker on the market right now.”

Surely it’s not just me who imagines a shadowy figure clutching a briefcase wearing a trenchcoat in an underground car park when hearing of these “sources”?